Territory



(No Model.)

J. B. HIGDON. WOOD BORING MACHINE.

No. 364,254. Patented June '7, 1887.

N PETERS. Phowutm m w. Wuzlinglm an UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEO JOHN B. HIGDON, OF VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON TERRITORY.

WOOD-BORING MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 364,254, dated June 7,1887.

Application filed November 29, 1886. Serial No. 120,147.

To aJZ 2072,0711, it may concern:

Be it known that 1, JOHN B. HIGDON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Vancouver, in the county of Clark, Washington Territory, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in \Vood-Boring Machines; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the an: nexed drawings, making a part of this specification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

The present invention has for its object to provide a simple and effective machine for boring holes in fir trees or logs, in which fire is placed for destroying them by burning.

Some of the western countries are heavily timbered with fir-trees, which are burned down and off, and to prepare them for this purpose it is necessary to have a simple and practical as well as easily-operating machine that can bore the required hole for creating the necessary draft when fire is placed therein.

Heretofore it was common to provide bor: jug-machines with a portable frame, and having connected thereto a vertical shaft formed at its lower end with an auger-bit and at its upper end with a gear-whee], with which engaged at similar wheel on a horizontal transverse shaft provided at its ends with handles for operating it, and such frame having a hinged brace to steady it when the machine was in use; These frames were unnecessarily cumbersome and heavy, as they were usually constructed of metal; and the object therefore of the present invention is to improve the construction of (No model.)

of metal and of a continuous metal hoop or band bent as shown to form the frame and depending guidc-braces a, the ends of the metal band or hoop being'united by welding or Otherwise, as shown at b, a hole being left, through which passes the vertical shaft 0. Upon the lower end of this shaft is ,a bit, d, in which the shank of the auger B is held by means of the set-screw c or other well-known device. The upper end of the shaft 0 passes through a transverse brace, f, connected to the inner sides of the frame A, and to the end of the shaft is keyed or otherwise affixed a pinion, with which engages a like pinion, h, on

a horizontal and transverse shaft, 2', provided at its ends with suitable crank-handles, G. The shaft 2' has its hearings in short tubes is, affiXed in the sides of the frame A, the bearing-surfaces of the tubes being chilled or otherwise hardened.

To the frame A, upon the inner sides thereof, by means of the metal straps Z, is pivoted the bifurcated end in of a supporting-brace, D, which the operator holds between his legs when turning the crank-handle 0, thereby guiding the auger and holding it at any angle 7 desired, which could not be done with a ma chine having a cumbersome frame.

It will be seen that the frame of the machine takes up a very small space, sufliclent only for containing the gear-wheels and shafts and the bifurcated end of the brace, the bifurcation in the brace forming supports for the sides of the frame to prevent the metal hook or band from springing when the machine is in use.

The essential feature of the invention is in the manner of constructing the frame-that is to say, forming it of a continuous metal hook or band-and at the termination of the frame, or at the lower portion thereof, bending the hoop or band inwardly, as shown at n, and afterward extending the ends downwardly and parallel with each other to form guide-braces a, which are of asufficient distance apart only to admit between them the' shaft 0, whereby 9 too What I claim as new, and desire to secure-by Letters Patent, is

In a device for the purpose described, the combinatiomwith the boring-tool and its shaft, of the frame A, constructed of a continuous metal band or hoop bent to form a substantially invcrted- U shaped portion and the ends at the lower part of said U-shaped portion bent inward, as at n, and then continued downward and parallel with each other to form guides a for the shaft, and the ends brought together and united, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

In testimony that I claim the above I have 1 5 hereunto subscribed my name in the presence of two witnesses.

JOHN B. HIGDON. Witnesses:

W. P. HIDDLEsoN, GEO. O. HrreHooeK. 

